Coworking Firm WeWork to Double its Space in India

The provider of coworking workplace We Work is planning to double the coworking space it offers in India to 6 million square feet in 2019. The company is expecting to expand its presence to cities including Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad by the end of next year.

The New York-headquartered collaborative workspace firm currently operates 3 million sq ft office space across Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gurgaon.

“In India, WeWork started the year with over 5,000 desks and is closing it with 35,000 desks across 21 locations. With a member base of 20,000 in India, we are selling 2,000 desks a month,” said Karan Virwani Karan, chief We-Work executive officer, WeWork India.

It was in late 2016 that the company made a foray into the country through a joint venture with Bengaluru-based real estate developer Embassy Group. It started operations in July 2017, with its first co-working office space at Embassy’s Residency Road building in Bengaluru of about 400,000 sq ft.

The company’s India arm contributed 10% of the total members to its global business this year and is averaging occupancy of over 95% for buildings open longer than six months.

“We have grown exceptionally in the last one year and there is a lot more attention on the Indian market. Sales growth in India and China has been extremely well for WeWork,” said Virwani.

This year, the firm has added 18 locations across National CapitalRegion, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Around 52% of the total demand is from large enterprises, both globally and in India.

Talking about the expasnsion, separately, the company plans to expand WeWork Labs in 10 locations across six cities in 2019. WeWork Labs provides dedicated space, services and community that supports more than 1,000 startups in 33 locations in 17 cities across 10 countries. WeWork expanded to eight new countries, 34 new cities and 200 new locations in 2018.